Sisterhood (Hanako Epilogue) is a Continuation Fic that picks up around the time where Hanako's good ending in Katawa Shoujo left off. The story starts with Lilly still in Scotland, having just heard her parents' request to join them there and Hisao and Hanako adjusting to the changes their relationship has brought into their lives. Hanako, her confidence boosted a little bit by her success in winning Hisao's heart, is determined to strengthen her friendship with Lilly and get on more equal footing with her, but the situation is complicated when Lilly announces her parents want her to leave Japan and migrate to Scotland.

A notable aspect of the fanfic is that it switches perspective several times over the course of the story. While the story itself centers around Hanako, only some of the chapters are told from her perspective. Others are told through Hisao's eyes and a handful are from Lilly's point of view. Upon its release, the fanfic was praised as feeling like a natural extension to Hanako's route in the game.

On 9-19-2014, the story received a massive expansion, making it one of the largest fanfics ever written for Katawa Shoujo.

This fic includes examples of:

A Date with Rosie Palms: When Hisao tries to take an increasingly passionate make-out session with Hanako to the next level, Hanako admits she's not ready for intercourse yet. Hisao appears to take it well, but Hanako worries he'll sneak off while she's asleep to 'give himself that happy ending I couldn't give him'. She solves the problem by taking the matter into her own hands...literally.

'Did you really believe that a few months of dating you was all it would take for Miss Ikezawa’s trauma to disappear just like that? Or a few months of dating anybody for that matter? Were you counting on that when you started going out with her? Do you even know why I’m treating her?'

It's a not-so-gentle reminder to Hisao that Hanako needs both friendship and truly professional help if she's to recover.

In the expansion, she poses another one to Lilly's parents: 'Do you love Miss Ikezawa?'

Big "NO!": Hanako lets one out when Hisao gets into a collision and she realizes he's having a heart attack right in front of her.

Bilingual Bonus: The name of the fictional university Hanako, Lilly and Hisao apply for, Kasshoku University, is a bit of a bilingual stealth pun. Kasshoku means brown in Japanese. Brown University was the place Yamaku Academy was modelled after.

Breakout Character: Miss Yumi in a way. While the VN already established the fact that Hanako was seeing a therapist, Sisterhood was the first fanfic where Hanako's therapist was given a developed personality and as a result has made an appearance in other people's Hanako-related fanfiction as well.

British Pubs: Hanako, Hisao, Lilly and Akira visit one while the former three are on vacation in Inverness. Lilly and Akira take part in and win a pub quiz.

Broken Bird: Akira already showed a few shades of this in the VN, but her family issues are really dragged to the forefront here. Her mother is one too, even though she hides it better.

But Not Too Foreign: Lilly and her sister Akira being this is brutally deconstructed in the Satou family's backstory.

But Now I Must Go: Played straight and then deconstructed. Hanako's therapist mentions they'll be going their separate ways the moment Hanako no longer needs psychiatric help and that's why a friendship between them wouldn't work. Hanako starts suspecting Lilly to have this mindset as well as she realizes her new-found confidence seems to be driving Lilly towards the decision to leave Japan, rather than away from it. She does NOT like it.

Averted in Lily's case, as she chose to stay in Japan. However, the trope pops up again after Hanako failed her exams, while Hisao and Lily leave Yamaku to attend university.

Character Development: All three protagonists go through some character development, Hanako most of all. Her character development ends up becoming a central point in the conflict between herself and Lilly.

Allows Lily to experience some parts of her Good End in canon, without her having a relationship with Hisao.

Club Stub: Like in Emi's route, Hisao starts a science club and in the beginning it's just him and Mutou. Eventually, Hisao gets Kenji on board and Hanako intends to try and help expand the club in her own way. Hisao later admits he'd like the club to be bigger. He eventually gets his wish.

Conspiracy Theorist: Kenji makes a few appearances later on and he always has time to let Hisao in on his latest pet theories.

Crazy-Prepared: After Hisao's stay in the hospital, Hisao and Hanako walk down the road to town for the second time in a week. This time, Hanako brings along an umbrella, just in case.

In her diary, Hanako also noted that she was on birth control pills. During their first sex session in Scotland (and while being drunk), Hisao didn't have a condom on...

Cry into Chest: Lilly breaks down while visiting Hisao in the hospital, though for different reasons than in her own route.

Culture Clash: Ultimately, this is the root cause for much of the conflict within the Satou family.

Deconstruction: Part of the story was inspired by a fan discussion that predicted that Lilly would probably move to Scotland after Hanako's arc since Hanako now has someone else to rely on. Sisterhood deconstructs the implications of that prediction.

She does it again while sober later on in an attempt to convince Hisao to stay with her in his dorm room instead of going out for a morning run while it's raining.

Earn Your Happy Ending: Hanako's, Hisao's and Lilly's 'little crippled family' gets violently shattered by events in the second half of the story (before the expansion). But they eventually come out of it much closer than before and it's completely due to each of them making a sincere effort to fix the situation.

After the expansion, Hanako bouncing back from failing her exams to being able to graduate on the next attempt.

Enemy Mine: While Hisao, Hanako and Lilly are going through a rough patch, Shizune decides to put her feud with Lilly on hold in order to be there for her classmates. But when the situation is resolved, she immediately picks a fight with Lilly again. Lilly, however, makes use of the experience to create some lasting progress with her cousin.

Figure It Out Yourself: When Hisao asks Miss Yumi for tips on how to reach out to Hanako, Yumi merely points out that relationship therapy isn't her field and Hisao himself has more experience at winning Hanako over than she does.

First Name Basis: Miss Yumi usually addresses people by their surnames, but uses a slightly more intimate "Miss Hanako" when speaking to Hanako directly. (And Hanako calls her Miss Yumi instead of Miss Takawa) She still insists on the "Miss"-part with Hanako in order to keep their professional distance intact. The one time she addresses Hanako in an informal manner is during an apology in order to indicate she's apologizing as a person and not as a therapist.

Foreshadowing: Miss Yumi's speech about the difference between friends and therapists in the flashback chapter.

Friendly Tickle Torture: When Hanako glumly admits she cannot feel any sensations in the parts of her body that are burned, Hisao assures her that she still has plenty of sensitive areas left and then drives home the point by tickling her into submission.

Full Name Ultimatum: Almost every time Lilly's parents call her "Lillian", it's to voice their disapproval of something she did.

Funny Background Event: After a nightly walk, Hisao and Hanako return to the Satou summer home and when they reach the patio, Hanako nearly trips over Lilly who was sitting outside and was casually reading her book in the dark.

Gamer Chick: Hanako's friend Jun is a completely straight example. She actually uses a Wii for her physical therapy.

Genki Girl: Naomi, Hanako's neighbour in class and fellow newspaper club member, acts a bit hyperactive at times and is easily distracted.

It's only partially her personality though, as Hanako finds out later in the story.

Happily Adopted: Hanako, eventually, though it takes her some time to take the step.

Half-Breed Discrimination: Akira reveals that she was the only child of mixed race at her school and got picked on as a result. Fear of this persisting was the deciding factor in a LOT of decisions Lilly's parents made.

Happy Ending Massage: Hisao regularly gives Hanako massages/backrubs to help her relax whenever she feels tense. Hanako notes a few of these massages devolved into something more. After their date to the arcade center, Hisao and Hanako take this one Up to Eleven.

Heroic BSOD: When Hisao gets into an accident in front of Hanako, she was so paralyzed by fear she can't even call for help. Her guilt about this sends her into a severe relapse and her actions drag Hisao and Lilly into a heroic BSOD of their own.

In the expansion, her cellphone going off in the lecture theatre triggers a major panic attack.

It's Not You, It's Me: This is pretty much the logic behind Hanako's decision to end her relationship with Hisao. She doesn't actually use the line, but she pretty much breaks up with Hisao without giving him the reason. Justified in that Hanako felt too ashamed of her inability to help Hisao in his moment of need to talk to him about it.

Hot Librarian: Played with. While Hanako is not a conventional beauty, you don't get hotter than having sex in a school library with a librarian.

A more dramatic one if you've played Lily's route. If she dates Hisao, she demands quite a bit of honesty from him. In the fic, it is very clear that she has not been very honest with family members, and her parents are quite lacking in that department when interacting with her.

I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A subtle variation. Lilly admits to Hanako that her friendship with Hisao could have lead to romantic feelings given the time and under the right circumstances, but since she cannot see, falling in love is a gradual process to her. (no love at first sight for her) When she realized Hisao was more drawn to Hanako, Lilly preemptively friendzoned Hisao in order to give Hanako a chance. Lilly also mentions to Hisao that this is probably what Hanako would do if she thought the shoe was on the other foot. (even if she was mistaken)

Kicked Upstairs: Happened to Hiroyuki after his heart attack meant that it would literally kill him if he remained at his current position. Lily noted that after the reassignment and his return to Japan, her father "aged at least a decade".

Lame Excuse: Hanako got Lilly to give her anti-conception pills under the excuse of menstruation pains. She admits the excuse was blatantly transparent and is thankful to Lilly for being a good sport and playing along without asking any awkward questions.

Like Sister And Sister: The title refers to Hanako's and Lilly's developing relationship. Hanako and Hisao feel like they and Lilly form a small family and Lilly is like a sister. Near the end Lilly acknowledges openly that Hanako is like a sister to her as well. Later on, Hanako starts forming a similar bond with Akira.

At the end of the story (post-expansion), they actually do become sisters, when Lilly and Akira's parents adopt Hanako.

Love Hotels: After their date, Hisao offers to spend the night in the city and they end up staying at a hotel. The story doesn't specify whether they stay at an actual love hotel or not, though their motivations for not returning to Yamaku for the night are pretty clear.

Maligned Mixed Marriage: Lilly's parents. The only reason Hiroyuki's parents allowed the marriage at all is because their son threatened to elope otherwise. Even afterwards, they did what they could to get Karla to leave on her own.

Mistaken for Gay: During some girly gossipping, Hanako mentions to Lilly that Hisao invited Kenji to join the newly-formed science club and Kenji, upon hearing that no females were attending, enthusiastically accepted. This causes Lilly and Hanako to conclude that Kenji's homosexual.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pressed for time, Lilly makes a desperate attempt to reach out to Hanako after the latter breaks up with Hisao out of guilt. It blows up in her face and she actually makes the situation worse. Lilly later has to acknowledge that Hisao and Hanako didn't need her help to reconcile with each other after all.

Noodle Incident: Near the end of the story (pre-expansion), Hisao asks Lilly, Shizune and Misha to give his parents a tour of the school and keep them busy while he searches for Hanako. Lilly and Shizune take the opportunity to pry several embarrassing childhood stories out of Hisao's mom and Misha taunts Hisao about it over the phone later. Since that part is told from Hanako's perspective, she doesn't hear what exactly Misha found out.

Not a Morning Person: It was already established in Katawa Shoujo that this trope applies to Lilly. One of the chapters that's told from her perspective starts early in the morning. Her thoughts are...a little less than coherant.

Oh Crap!: Played for laughs at first when Hisao and Hanako discuss the traces of their last love making session in the tea room. Hisao has love scratches on his back and Hanako has a hickey. Their awkwardness quickly turns to horror when they discover Lilly was just outside the room and has heard the whole thing. A much more serious example is when Hisao opens the envelope Shizune found in the student council mailbox and finds the hair clip he gave Hanako. Her sending it back means their relationship really is on the rocks. There's another semi-serious one when Hisao's parents pick him up from the hospital and tell him they intend to take him home for a few days to recover there.

Original Character: The story introduces Miss Yumi, Hanako's therapist. She's a supporting character, but still rather important to the plot.

Hanako does have a therapist in canon, but the characteristics of the canon therapist are never revealed.

A completely straight example is Jun Yamazaki, a girl from the newspaper club who Hanako ends up befriending.

Original Flavor: Most people who read it agree it very much feels like a natural extension of Hanako's in-game story arc.

Parents as People: Lilly's parents, Karla and Hiroyuki Satou, take this trope Up to Eleven. The fact that they went to Scotland and left Lilly behind in Japan with Akira isn't glossed over, but they're nevertheless portrayed as well-meaning and caring people who had their own problems influencing their decisions and who genuinely love their children.

Peek-a-Bangs: Hanako still has hers in order to hide her facial scarring, but she occasionally uses a hair clip Hisao gave her to move them aside in order to make kissing more practical or simply as a sign of her increased comfort around Hisao.

Potty Failure: Played for drama with Naomi. On rare occasions, her epileptic seizures cause her to lose bladder control. Her best friend Natsume points out that this is the one aspect of her illness that Naomi is genuinely uncomfortable and sensitive about.

Relationship Reveal: While waiting for Lilly to arrive at Yamaku after her first trip to Scotland, Hisao is wondering about ways to play this trope straight. He's a bit disappointed when he finds out that Lilly already got Hanako to spill the beans on their Relationship Upgrade.

Rousing Speech: Hisao prepared one for his reconciliation attempt with Hanako. It's interrupted mid-way by Hanako when it turns out Hisao misunderstood her reasoning.

Rule of Symbolism: During a game of air hockey, Hisao brings up the fact that Hanako is sometimes taking the give-and-take/back-and-forth dynamic of their relationship way too far and her insistence on immediately returning every single favor on Hisao's part makes their relationship feel overly rigid. During the majority of the game/argument, the score reflects this rigid dynamic with Hanako always scoring one point for herself after Hisao's scored one. It's not until Hisao makes his final argument that he starts pulling ahead.

Samurai: Akira compares her father to one, and she's not far off the mark.

Shout-Out: Quite a few. Several well-known memes, such as the 'Healthy adolescent sex drive', Kenji's 'Manly Picnic" line, Hanako flipping a coin as well as the chocolate meme make a cameo in some form or another.

Hanako's initial reaction to Hisao bringing lubricant along is a nod to Emi's arc.

When Hanako comes to Hisao's room for comfort, Hisao wonders if she means comfort or "comfort". This is a reference to an event with Misha in Shizune's route.

When Hanako and Hisao win a pluche puppy in a crane game, Hanako calls him 'Niji' and later gives him to Lilly as a present. Niji was the name of Lilly's guide dog in an early version of the game.

Akira's remark that they thought about having a guide dog for Lilly at some point, but ultimately decided against it is another reference to the fact that Niji got scrapped.

At some point while a depressed Lilly is visiting Hisao, he sees the pluche dog in Lilly's handbag. This is a reference to the final CG of Shizune's bad end.

Hisao and Hanako play several matches of Street Fighter II. Hanako plays with Dhalsim and Vega (the masked guy, not the dictator) and Hisao fights with Sagat.

Who could forget the final words of the story (pre-expansion)? It's the very sentence most associated with Hanako after the release of the full game.

Lilly's mother mentioning how she always wanted to wake someone up using her mother's "ladle and frying pan" method is a reference to Osaka who wanted to do the same.

Sitting on the Roof: Hanako goes here near the end of the story (pre-expansion) to avoid everyone else.

Something Completely Different: Instead of events as seen (and narrated) through a character's viewpoint, chapter 57 is a collection of emails and internet messages between Hanako and just about everyone in the cast.

The first letters of the names belonging to the additional members of the science club (aside from Hisao and Kenji) spell out "Newton".

Stepford Smiler: Hisao notes that Lilly's ability to keep up appearances even while being in a depressed mood is a little unsettling.

Turns out it runs in the family.

Take a Third Option: Lilly doesn't enjoy the idea of either giving up her life in Japan or giving up a chance to reconcile with her estranged parents. She opts to stay in Japan, but drop by in Scotland whenever she has a school break and also offers to call every few days.

In the expansion, it turns out that even the third option is not needed, as her parents decide to return to Japan.

Take That: In his email correspondence with Hanako, Hiroyuki had quite a few jabs at Jigoro (The man had sent copies of his autobiography to Yamaku's library).

Team Mom: When Naomi, Hanako and Jun form a writing club together, Lilly's mother (being a former journalist), decides to start sponsoring them and becomes a bit of a mentor figure to them.

Tempting Fate: On their way to town, Hisao and Hanako are surprised by a rainstorm. Hisao suggests running the rest of the way. Hanako worries about Hisao's heart, but Hisao insists he'll be fine since his daily morning runs significantly improved his stamina. Then he gets into a collision with a cyclist who was, like him, blinded by the rain and his heart promptly goes nuts. Ouch!

The Power of Love / The Power of Friendship: Hisao brings up the trope during his meeting with Hanako's therapist, suggesting that instead of therapy, maybe Hanako really just needed friends. Miss Yumi is quick to mention that the two are not mutually exclusive and Hanako benefits most from having both.

The Stations of the Canon: A variation. In the VN, Lilly's route and Hanako's route involve several shared events like Hanako's birthday party and Lilly having to go and visit her aunt in Scotland, but Hanako's arc ends sooner. The story is structured around several events that also happen in Lilly's arc, but since Hisao is now dating Hanako instead of Lilly, things play out differently.

For Want of a Nail: The trio still goes to Hokkaido, but since Hanako reminds Hisao to take his meds and since Hisao's been working out to get healthier, he doesn't have a heart attack. Lilly's Scotland dilemma still comes up, but this time it's Hanako who convinces Lilly to follow her heart and stay in Japan.

In Spite of a Nail: Hanako still ends up in the newspaper club, though the circumstances that cause her to join are a bit different.

There Are No Therapists: Averted. Hanako's therapist plays a fairly important role in the story and insists she has her own role to play in Hanako's recovery process.

The Talk: The nurse gives one to Hisao. Not so much about the act itself, but about doing it responsibly.

Trauma Conga Line: Hanako, Hisao and Lilly each go through one of these in the second half of the story(pre-expansion).

In the expansion, Hanako goes through this as she suffers a major panic attack, fails her exams and had to remain behind in Yamaku alone.

Triang Relations: Hanako worries sometimes that Lilly is secretly in love with Hisao herself and that's the reason she's been withdrawn lately. It later turns out her parents' summoning was what was burdening her and Lilly later tells Hanako in no unsure terms that she's not in love with Hisao. (although she nevertheless feels a strong sisterly affection for him)

The Unfavorite: Akira has felt she was this in the eyes of her parents for a very long time and eventually has to admit to herself that her resistance towards mending the rifts in the family partially stems from the fear that doing so will just mean she'll go back to that role.

Fridge Brilliance when you consider Akira's personality as something a deeply traditional Japanese father would disapprove of in a daughter, much less the eldest one who might become his heiress.

Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A ringing cellphone in a lecture hall causes Hanako to have a massive panic attack. It also helped to derail her graduation plans, as the panic attack severely affected her performance at the exams.

We Used to Be Friends: Lilly confides in Hanako that she and Shizune were once on friendly terms and used to have silly fun together. That all changed once they were forced to work together and Lilly started airing grievances on behalf of other students as well. Lilly reminding Shizune of this ultimately serves to take the personal element out of their feud.

What the Hell, Hero?: In the hospital, Hisao mopes about how his heart attack erased all the progress Hanako made since they started dating. Yumi calls him naïve for assuming a trauma of the kind Hanako has is just going to go away without the occasional relapse and tells him that Hanako's psychological issues aren't going to magically disappear just because he's dating her.

On the flip side, his relationship isn't going to magically disappear just because she has psychological issues, either.

Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 0, a therapy session between Hanako and Miss Yumi that takes place before Hanako met Lilly, is inserted between chapter 5 and chapter 6, after Miss Yumi was already introduced in the main storyline. Later on, Chapter Alpha goes back even further.

Wounded Gazelle Gambit: An unpleasant, but well-meant example. Hanako's first aid trainer was asked to give his opinion on Hanako's ability to use her newly learned knowledge in an actual emergency, so he pretends to collapse just to see if she manages to act or if she breaks down. Hanako passes the test, but only barely.

Yamato Nadeshiko: Hanako's therapist, Miss Yumi Takawa, is a grandmotherly Yamato Nadeshiko and behaves like an older Lilly. Both Hisao and Hanako take note of the similarity in demeanor and Hanako's subconcious comparison of the two is the basis of the major conflict in the story.

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